Equestrian Railways

by shadowspark101

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

It had been a few days since the boys had arrived in Equestria. Both had been discussing plans to modernize the BNFR’s clapped-out fleet of engines, and had decided on a list of locomotives to build in order to do so.

One morning, John had just woken up and walked out of the flat that he and Benn shared, which was located not far from the yards in Baltimare. He then looked down to see the paper at his feet, and chuckled when he saw the headlines. He picked it up and went inside to read it to himself.

Benn was in the bathroom cleaning up his face. A few days working in a railyard had taken its toll, and he was having trouble washing out the coal dust and oil from his face and hair. He looked in the mirror, examining his usually spiky brown hair, which had started to fall in some spots. He then heard John knocking. “Take it easy John, I’m almost done.” He heard no more knocking, and guessed that John had left. He finished cleaning up whatever he could of his face, then headed to the dining area. He noticed a newspaper called ‘The Equestrian Daily’, and looked at the headlines. ‘Strange locomotive with crew seen in Canterlot Union Station.’ He opened up the newspaper, and read the article. “A new engine design was seen pulling the usually late Fillydelphia Flyer into Canterlot Union Station. The engine was a strange wheel arrangement, with four leading wheels, six driving wheels, with no trailing wheels. The locomotive was owned by a railway called ‘British Railways’, and was driven by two strange monkey-like creatures that called themselves humans. When interviewing these humans, they gave me a small explanation on the engine and their race. This engine was apparently a ‘B17’ class, that were created by Sir Herbert Nigel Gresley for a railway called ‘The London North Eastern Railway’ These two humans also discussed a plan to standardize the BNFR’s fleet of engines and their rolling stock, as well as their signals. It is unknown what else these humans have planned, but if what they say is true, than the BNFR will not have any fears of Nationalization.” Benn finished reading the newspaper. He was sort of shocked at what he had read, as he hadn’t expected them to be able to get the news out that the BNFR had two new creatures helping them. He sighed, then went to go get his work uniform and head down to the yards for another day of work.

John had already at the Baltimare workshops overseeing the construction of the new B17’s. So far, they had managed to build the wheels and the coupling rods with no problems, but now they had to try and cast a whole new boiler, as well as make the valve gear and cylinders, which had been presenting a list of problems.

The new B17 boilers were copies of the LNER 100A boilers, which had a boiler pressure of 225 psi. This was 85 pounds more than the old Poniston 4-4-0’s, which had a boiler pressure of 140 psi. There had been many rumors of the new boilers being very dangerous, and that they may have to lower the pressure to 150 to 165 psi, they did want to go lower, but John and Benn had discussed this with Blueprint and the forepony of the works. They had agreed, that if the testing engine didn’t work out as planned, then all the B17’s would be built with lower pressure boilers, which would have 180 psi. But the boilers weren’t the only problem.

The Gresley congulated valve gear was very awkward to try and copy, unlike the easier Walschaerts valve gear. And the new idea of having three cylinders, two outside and one inside, was very different to the ponies, who were used to building two inside cylinder engines. The new engines were, as they put it. “Very large, and could possibly run the railway into the ground just by building one.” But construction still went as planned, nonetheless.

Blueprint glanced over at the new engine being built. So far there had been plenty of problems in introducing the new design practices in the workshops. The boiler by itself was going to take a week to cast. And by the pace that they were making the B17, there would only be three, not counting ‘Champions Lodge’, ready by the end of the month. She decided to go and talk to Mr. Hoover about the humans and their so-called ‘innovations’.

Benn had reached the office at the same time as Blueprint did. The two had almost bumped straight into each other as they reached the door, but Benn had stopped himself and opened the door for Blueprint as she strolled into Mr. Hoover’s office. ‘She seemed mad,’ Benn thought. ‘I wonder why.’ He then entered the room, and soon found out why.

“Mr. Hoover, this is just an outrage!” Blueprint screamed, slamming her hands on the desk. “This new engine design is taking too long to build, and we’re running into so many problems, how do we know that these humans know what they are doing?”

Mr. Hoover just sighed. “Be patient Blueprint,” He said calmly. “Just because something seems tough, doesn’t make it impossible to do. Have some faith in John and Benn’s new design.”

“But that’s just it,” Blueprint said, not noticing the Benn had entered the room after her. “This new design is so huge, it’s taking a lot of resources to just build one engine, much less a whole batch. I mean, the cylinders are an awkward configuration, the boiler and cylinders are bigger than what we’re used to casting, and the valve gear configuration is very strange.” She finished.

Benn cleared his throat. “Ahem,” He walked up. “That’s why I am here, sir, we do realize that building the B17’s will take time. So,” He said, looking at Blueprint, then pulling out some large rectangular shaped object. “John and I have thought of a new fleet of locomotives to keep things moving until the first batch of B17’s are ready to go into service.” He said, before placing the object down and opening it up.

Blueprint looked at the object on the desk in front of Benn and Mr. Hoover. It was a very thin object. The side that opened up had something like a screen on it, and the bottom part had Equestrian lettering on it, as well as numbers, and a few strange characters. She looked as Benn pushed a button, and the machine whirred to life. He then began typing something by pushing the keys down repeatedly, as words and pictures showed up on the screen in front of him. “Excuse me Benn,” She asked. “What is this strange device?”

“A laptop, my dear Blueprint,” He said calmly, as he showed Mr. Hoover the screen. “Now this is what we’ve thought up. The engine is an older design, but it won’t take very long to build, possibly one a week, if it were to be built elsewhere on the network.”

Blueprint by this point had heard enough. “Don’t you see what you’re doing?” She yelled at Benn. “You’re having us create new designs that possibly won’t work, and will be very expensive to create!” She grabbed Benn’s shirt and brought him to her face. “And what makes you think that these new designs will even work on OUR railway?”

“Because,” Benn said. “These designs have been used before and improved on by the railways they were built for,” He then clicked some keys and clicked the little pad in the middle of the bottom piece of the computer, as an image appeared on the top screen. The image was that of a small tank engine. It had six small wheels, which made it an 0-6-0, a tall funnel, and a dome that was the same height as the funnel, a cab and bunker just below the back windows. The tanks of the engine followed just below the boiler except one part which dipped just slightly where the smokebox was, and it had an opening in the tanks, revealing part of the running gear, and the valve gear. “This, is an LNER J50 tank engine. I was thinking of building some of these engines to serve as shunting engines for the railway’s workshops, after seeing how much of a struggle it was to move the B17 into the workshops, and the fact that it took two of your 4-4-0’s to move one engine.” He looked over at Mr. Hoover, who was looking at the design carefully, seeing the blueprints and taking down the details.

“Well,” Mr. Hoover said calmly. “It seems you boys have some very erm… different ideas on locomotives. But it doesn’t look like this design will take as much time as the B17’s will,” He looked up at Blueprint, who was carefully looking at the locomotive’s picture. “Blueprint, do you think the works at Fillydelphia could get started on this new engine?” He asked.

Blueprint glanced at the laptop, moving some of her short, green hair out of the way to see better. “I believe so Mr. Hoover,” She said calmly. “It would strike me as odd as to why we would need smaller engines when what we really need are newer designs to keep up with the EQN. But other than that, I have no qualms for this design, and his facts and reasons make sense as to why this design could help.”

Benn just grinned, and looked at Blueprint. “I would be happy to loan you my laptop so you can copy the designs Blueprint,” He said. “But this laptop runs on batteries, which need to be charged by an electric outlet, would you happen to have one at all around here?”

Blueprint looked at Benn. “Well, we don’t have these ‘electric outlets’ that you speak of. We do however pay Unicorns to recharge our electrical devices for us, unless you’re a unicorn yourself, than you can just charge your own device. Luckily for you, I happen to be a Unicorn,” She finished, tapping her horn to prove her point. She looked over the picture and drawings of the J50 Tank Engine. She looked over to Benn. “So, how long do I have to copy these drawings into Blueprints?” She asked.

Benn thought at what Blueprint had said. If she could keep the laptop charged with her magic. That would eliminate the need for plugging it into an outlet. That the ponies hadn’t invented yet. “Well, since you ARE a unicorn,” He said. “You can borrow my laptop for a few days to copy the drawings, but I do want it back when you are finished.” He handed his laptop off to Blueprint, who held it carefully, as to not drop it.

Blueprint nodded and looked at the laptop one more time, before turning and leaving. After she had left, Benn looked at Mr. Hoover. “Son, I hope you know what you are doing. These new projects of yours are going to cost a shiny bit. And this railway doesn’t have all the funding that the railways on your world may have.” Mr. Hoover said, eyeing Benn, as he looked at the door that Blueprint had just exited. Benn nodded and left. “So do I sir, so do I.” The Brit said softly to himself.

Comments

[Appleloosa2011]

Yay!

Trains!

[Shimmering Honor]

Yay, More trains are being added to the fleet